Hot News: December 16, 2016

By Climate Nexus

A Trump Guide To Unraveling Climate Action: Red state officials penned an open letter to Trump Thursday urging him to begin dismantling the Clean Power Plan on “day one” of his presidency. The letter, signed by officials from 24 mostly Trump-leaning states, lays out a legal plan of action for the incoming administration on how to undo Obama’s signature climate rule. Trump may not need to follow their advice to do serious damage to his predecessor’s climate legacy, however: both the DOE questionnaire sent last week and a leaked transition team memo indicate that a Trump administration will target the policy application of and math behind the social cost of carbon, which forms the basis for the CPP as well as a broad range of other policies. Other Obama administration climate actions, like an international agreement limiting hydrofluorocarbon use and a moratorium on Arctic drilling, could also come under attack. (CPP letter: AP, Reuters, The Hill. SCC: Bloomberg. Obama legacy: AP, Politico PRO $, Bloomberg, Fox. Commentary: New York Times, Michael Greenstone and Cass Sunstein op-ed $, USA Today, Ledyard King analysis)

Last Year’s Weird Weather Fueled By Climate Change: Global warming exacerbated two dozen extreme weather events in 2015, finds a report on extreme events and climate published by the American Meteorological Society Thursday. The findings, which examined 30 weather events total, linked man-made climate change to incidents like “sunny day” flooding in Florida, Alaskan wildfires, heavy rains in China, and drought in Ethiopia. Notably, the report includes the first direct scientific link between human-caused climate change and the record high intensity of west North Pacific typhoons. (Washington Post $, AP, USA Today)

Michigan’s Successful Energy Compromise: Lawmakers in Michigan sent a revamped version of the state’s energy package to the governor’s desk Thursday evening, representing a significant bipartisan compromise in a protracted negotiation process. The bills, negotiated in the last hours of the lame duck session personally by Gov. Snyder, focus on the state’s transition off of coal-fired power plants, as well as increasing mandates for renewables production and maintaining the state’s energy choice program. This legislation follows on the heels of a similar bipartisan state energy compromise in Illinois last week. (Energywire $, Michigan Radio, The Detroit News, Detroit Free Press, WSJM,

California’s Computers to Conserve Energy: The California State Energy Commission announced the nation’s first regulatory standards for computers, laptops, and monitors on Wednesday. The regulations are expected to conserve as much electricity as the city of San Francisco uses annually and cut over 700,000 tons of carbon pollution per year. Regulators expect that the standards could have national implications as manufacturers adjust computer models to fit the large California market. (New York Times $, LA Times $, Reuters, The Verge,Greenwire $, Techwire, Ars Technica)

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Since its founding in 2011, Climate Nexus has drawn upon established and emerging science to personalize and localize the climate and energy story through work with the media, relevant NGOs and other thought leaders.